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TIL DEATH Feb 5th in Vancouver

One of our very best is playing two performances at the Havana Theatre before heading on the road to Nova Scotia.

TICKETS

The Betrayed wife.  The Scheming wife. The Peacemaker.  The Ugly German. The Slutty one. The One in love with someone else.

Six Queens.  Six Love stories.  Six Deaths. One Actress!

 

“The idea is as brilliant as the execution is funny.” 5 stars -CBC

“An incredibly rich, dizzying experience that should not be missed.” -BENT

“Ingenious, Dazzling and Amazing!” 4 stars  -Edmonton Journal

”Monster Theatre are Canada’s ablest fact-benders and history-skewerers. Gladstone’s script is a lesson in crowd-pleasing wit.” 4 ½ stars –SEE

 

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ANNOUNCING THEATRE UNDER THE GUN 2019 COMPANIES!

AND THE COMPANIES ARE…

DOPE HEARTS THEATRE

Mariam Barry, Omari Newton, Gavan Cheema, Celia Aloma, Missy D, Donald Sales, Chris Francisque

Dope Hearts Theatre is a brand new theatre collaboration for Black creatives. Born from a shared vision to see more Black voices on our stages, we are a group of melanin poppin’ artists who’ll be teaming up for the first time at Theatre Under The Gun. For this 48hr showdown our artists consist of Celia Aloma, Mariam Barry, Missy D, Chris Francisque, Omari Newton, Donald Sales, with Gavan Cheema as our director. This will be the first of many exciting works from Dope Hearts Theatre. So come ride with us in celebration of a new and electric voice to our theatre scene. Dope hearts. Dope theatre.

 

PALIMPSEST

David Bloom, Masae Day, Matthew Kowalchuck and Panthea Vatandoost

 

Palimpsest is an ad hoc collective of theatre artists, many of whom still have not met each other. In the spirit of Theatre Under The Gun, they are coming together to create an interdisciplinary piece which will be as much of a surprise to them as to the audience.

 

WE ARE AN AD HOC GROUP

Chris Ross, Tia Glenn-Cooke, Travis Bernhardt, Julia Lank, Patrick Dodd, Kai Rudell, Zach Wolfman

 

We CAN’T WAIT to see what work emerges from this ad hoc supergroup of actors, musicians, improvisers, magicians, and clowns! Their past work includes talking rabbits that judge the audience, shows that consist entirely of verbal descriptions of food, improvised church services for religions made up on the spot, live anime, drunk Shakespeare, and Vancouver’s most beloved mime horse.

 

TIGHT CORSET THEATRE COMPANY

Jackie Blackmore, Susanne Moniz de Sa, Yumi Ogawa, Laura Jaszcz, Catherine Falkner.

Tight Corset Theatre Company was formed in 1999 as a platform to foster and support women artists to write, workshop & produce original comedic theatre works. Veteran performers of the Vancouver & Victoria Fringe Festivals and Theatre Under The Gun, their award-winning past shows include Saucy Bits, The Good Time Girls, Dumb Blind Luck, Awkward & Ways to Woo Enrigué.

 

SOUR DOG THEATRE

Claire Love Wilson, Ali Froggatt, Sarah Ferguson, Lili Beaudoin, Amy Shostack

Since its inception 4 years ago, Sour Dog Theatre has produced over 50 improv shows (including 4 original formats), 2 Canadian Fringe Festival runs, The Canmore International Improv Festival, and 4 scripted play productions. Our mandate is to create work that explores what connects and disconnects us as human beings. With a strong value for honest storytelling we are constantly on the search for universal truth within the human experience. We strive to create theatrical experiences that are playful, poignant and professional, whether it be improvisation or scripted work.

 

YOUR FAVOURITE PEOPLE

 

Keara Barnes, Matthew McDonald-Bain, Jamie King, Jalen Slip

‘Your Favourite People’ is a collective of award winning professional theatre artists who are excited to collaborate fast and furiously on this project.

 

CAUSE FOR CONCERN

Valerie Cotic, Cory Thibert, Jeff Leard, Al Lafrance, Devon More

 

Cause For Concern is Valerie Cotic (new best friend), Al Lafrance (Thunder Blunder), Devon More (Devon More Music), Jeff Leard (Active Salad), and Cory Thibert (May Can Theatre). We are an ad hoc group of artists with different artistic backgrounds from all across the country who met on the Canadian Fringe circuit and all eventually ended up being neighbours here in Vancouver.

 

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THE SHAKESPEARE SHOW is back in Vancouver Oct 18-27

Monster Theatre’s most revered production of all time

Returns to Vancouver for its 10 year Anniversary

Don’t miss it!!!

The Shakespeare Show

Or; How an illiterate Son of a Glover

Became the Greatest Playwright in the World

Plays at The Havana Theatre October 18, 19, 20 and 25, 26, 27, 2018

All Show @ 8pm

TICKETS!

“This play is so damn clever, even if you don’t know any Shakespeare you’ll still understand it.  If you have a love for language, physical comedy and intelligent wit, then The Shakespeare Showis for you.” ★★★★★-CBC Winnipeg

Who wrote the plays of William Shakespeare? Shakespeare himself? The Earl of Oxford?

A horse?Monster Theatre’s Ryan Gladstone (No Tweed Too Tight, Every Story Ever Told) and Tara Travis (Til Death: The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Who Killed Gertrude Crump?) are back to get to the bottom of the debate as they bring their 2008 hit, The Shakespeare Show, back to Vancouver. After years of co-producing Monster Theatre solo works, they are STOKED to get back on stage together with the show that started their wildly successful partnership.

Brings the bawdy world of Shakespeare to life! The Shakespeare Show stands out in the festival for having something to say, and saying it with purpose and humour.” ★★★★★ -Winnipeg Free Press

Based on the greatest theatrical debate of all time, The Shakespeare Showinvestigates the theory that the plays of William Shakespeare were penned by Edward de Vere, the 17thEarl of Oxford. Just like one of his tragic heroes, Oxford sets his own tragedy in motion by using young Will Shakespeare, the boy who holds the horses outside the theatre, as a ‘front’ for his playwriting ventures. The result? Another “relentlessly clever, action-packed and intellectually satisfying”(Edmonton Journal) Monster Theatreadventure, complete with puppets, songs, swordfights and satire. Along the way we meet the Ghost of Christopher Marlowe, the Three Witches from Mac…ahem…The Scottish Play, Anne Hathaway, victims of the Bubonic Plague and Queen Elizabeth herself!  In the end, Oxford is killed and charges Shakespeare to tell his story – hence, this… “The only play e’er writ by Will Shakespeare”.

“…without doubt the cleverest, most well researched and cunningly put together piece of witty Shakespeariana I’ve ever seen – just smokes past Wm. Shakespeare abridged!”–Neil Freeman, Applause First Folio Editions

Written by Monster Theatre’s Artistic Director Ryan Gladstone, The Shakespeare Show is largely in iambic pentameter and almost completely in rhyming couplets.  Directed by Karen Hamm, this fast-paced physical comedy features Tara Travis and Ryan Gladstone playing over 40 roles between the two of them!  First produced and workshopped on the Canadian Fringe Festival circuit in 2008, The Shakespeare Show won Pick of the Fringe in Vancouver and has gone on to play numerous regional theatres across North America. A beautiful score is supplied by violin virtuoso Drew Jurecka (Jeff Healey Band, Sarah Slean, Vinyl Café), and Fight Choreography is supplied by Kevin Kruchkywich (Theatre Calgary, Arts Club, Vancouver Playhouse, Citadel).

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Monster Theatre Nominated for SEVEN Jessie Richardson Awards!

Who Killed Gertrude Crump? was nominated for four awards in the Small Theatre Category including:

Outstanding Performance by an Actress (Tara Travis),
Outstanding Direction (Ryan Gladstone), Outstanding Production and Significant Artistic Achievement – Small Theatre: Outstanding puppetry design, creation, execution and performance (Tara Travis and Dusty Hagerud).

The Canada Show: The Complete History of Canada was nominated for three awards in the TYA Category including:

Outstanding Production, Outstanding Performance (Alex Gullason, Carly Pokoradi and Frankie Cottrell) and Significant Artistic Achievement for the Song Writing (Bruce Horak, Ryan Gladstone, Jeff Gladstone, Wes Borg).

Congrats Monsters!!!

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The Canada Show available for booking Fall 2018

Monster Theatre’s biggest hit The Canada Show is planning a fall tour in Western Canada! For bookings contact gm@monstertheatre.com

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Who Killed Gertrude Crump? at the Vancouver International Puppet Festival

Agatha Christie Returns from the Dead to perform a Puppet Show.

Feb 13-18 @ Performance Works

Tickets here!

It’s New Year’s Eve 1899. One by one, an enigmatic cast of characters arrive by boat to the haunting and isolated Monkswell Manor. That night, famous murder mystery author Gertrude Crump is murdered… mysteriously! No one can leave until the truth is uncovered.

As the characters investigate, accuse, suspect, confess, plot, flash-back and engage in general hubbub, the audience is charged with the task of answering one simple question: Who Killed Gertrude Crump?

“…the most impressive acting feat in the festival!” ★★★★★-Kevin Prokosh, Winnipeg Free Press

“A standing ovation followed Travis’ tour-de-force performance.”- ★★★★★ London Free Press

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